Apache continues to fight the good fight against spam. The firm today released what it bills as a major step forward in its popular open source SpamAssassin product.

eSecurity Planet takes a look at the new offering, and hears from Apache about how it aims to make life easier for mail managers.

Spammers beware! A new version of Apache SpamAssassin has you in its sights.

After over two and half years of development, SpamAssassin 3.3.0 is now available, providing mail administrators with new features to better stem the flow of spam into their organizations.

The popular open source antispam project, which is run either as a mail server or locally as a spam filter, uses a variety of techniques to detect unwanted bulk e-mail. Now with its 3.3.0 release, SpamAssassin (SA) is taking a major step forward in separating its rules engine from the core product -- a move that aims to improve the overall efficacy of spam detection.

"Removing the rules from the core product eliminates duplication of rule files and confusion about which rules on a system are actually used," Daryl O'Shea, Apache SpamAssassin's project management committee (PMC) chair, told InternetNews.com.